BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Alice C. Linsley

The book of Ruth is short narrative, but it is rich in anthropologically significant data.

In Ruth we read about a custom involving a blanket that has been observed in various cultures. Boaz has fallen asleep at the threshing floor after a day or hard labor. While he sleeps, Ruth lifts up his blanket and covers herself with it. This is her way of seeking marriage to Boaz, a ruler of Bethlehem.

The photo above, titled "A Sioux Wedding", was taken in 1912 by Julia Tuell. Among the Dakota Sioux it was the custom for the maiden to agree to marriage by stepping into her suitor's blanket. E. Irving Couse's painting "The Wedding" (below) also depicts this custom.

In Ruth 3, we read that Ruth went to the threshing floor where Boaz was sleeping and quietly "uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!"

Some have interpreted this as a seduction based on the supposition that "feet" is sometimes a euphemism for testicles. However, the plain meaning of the text is that she covered herself at his feet so quietly that Boaz did not wake. A man's testicles are very sensitive and had this been a seduction, he would have awakened. Further, when he wake, he asks, "“Who are you?” Ruth makes her intention clear when she responds:

“I am your servant Ruth. Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family."

In the ancient world, daily activities like cooking, sowing, harvesting, and threshing grain had religious significance. Threshing floors were associated with the Sun and with solar cycles. They had ritual use as well as practical use.

Threshing floors were owned by the local chief and were sacred places at high level elevations where the wind could carry away the chaff. Araunah, a Jebusite ruler, sold David a threshing floor upon which David constructed an altar.

The solar symbolism of the ancient Horite Hebrew is evident in the pattern of some of the threshing floors (shown above). There is a connection to the grain that was ground to make bread. The solar image often appears on loaves. This Irish Maslin bread is an example. Maslin bread is the oldest known bread eaten by the Celts. It was the bread of common folks, containing a blend of wheat and rye flours.

Related reading: Threshing Floors and Solar Symbols; The Town Gate

Aaron's Tomb on the summit of Mount Harun in ancient Edom.

(Photo credit: Ferrell Jenkins)

Alice C. Linsley

Aaron (Harun) was a Horite Hebrew priest who led the clan of Jacob from Egypt to the land of Edom, Abraham's territory. It is said that Aaron died on Mount Hor which is situated on the edge of the land of Edom.

The term "Hor" refers to Horite, a caste of Hebrew ruler-priests who were devotees of God the Father and his Son, Horus. In this belief, Aaron was following the Messianic Faith of his forefather Abraham. The Horite rulers of Edom are listed in Genesis 36. Edom was one of the ancient seats of wisdom.

Josephus (Antiquities 4:4:6) identifies Aaron's Mount (Jebel Haroun in Arabic; Har Harun in Hebrew) with a twin-peaked mountain in the Edomite Mountains on the east side of the Jordan-Arabah valley, near Petra. There is a shrine at the summit, the Tomb of Aaron, said to mark Aaron's grave.

King David and King Herod had Edomite blood. For three months the Ark of the Covenant rested in David’s hometown of Bethlehem in the house of Obed-Edom.

The ancient capital of Edom was Boz-Ra, meaning the "sheepfold of Ra."

Alice C. Linsley

The evidence of anthropology, linguistics, DNA studies, and archaeology indicates that the Sumerians were likely dispersed cattle-herding Proto-Saharans who moved into the northern regions of Eden where the climate conditions in this riverine terrain during the African Aqualithic made the land ideal for grazing. The Proto-Saharans moved into Mesopotamia before 7000 BC. They developed a way of life that centered around the water systems of biblical Eden.

In Genesis, Eden is described as a vast well-watered world that extended from the source of the Nile in Ethiopia to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

This Eden belt has an arc shape that corresponds roughly with the drought zone of the early 1970s when Lake Chad began to shrink rather dramatically and the smaller lakes of Egypt's desert virtually disappeared. The arc extends in three directions from the southern Sahara near the Benue Trough in Nigeria to the Nile and there bends up-river (south) to the equatorial East African rift valleys, and northeast toward present day Jordan, Israel, Syria, and Iraq.

The height of this ‘aquatic civilization’ came in the seventh millennium BC, when higher rainfall made rivers longer and wider, and caused lakes to burst their basins (Butzer et al., 1972; Zinderen Bakker, 1972).

Around 7000 BC, Lake Chad expanded enormously and overflowed via the Benue and Lower Niger rivers into the Atlantic. In East Africa the small lakes in the Kenya rift valley and in Egypt's desert rose and many of the water systems became connected. This was a time of flooding and we may assume that Noah lived during this time (c. 500-4000 BC) in the area of Lake Chad which is claimed by the natives to be Noah's homeland. Bor-Nu means "land of waters" and "land of Noah."

The Sumerians built fortified cities at high elevation near permanent water sources beginning around 4000 BC. These were royal cities from which the surrounding region was governed by the king or the vassal of a high king. The Sumerian city-states included Eridu, Nippur, Lagash, Kish, Ur and Uruk. These were shrine cities similar to those found along the Nile at Nekhen and Nekheb.

In the time of Abraham, ziggurats began to appear in Mesopotamia. These were the Sumerian counterparts to the pyramids of the Nile. These stepped temples usually had seven tiers. The number seven was a sacred number likely due to astronomical observations and because the number was associated with the oldest known caste of priests, the Horite Hebrew. The connection between the words for priest (abru) and seven is evident in the Nilotic (Luo) word for the number seven, which is abiriyo.

The word "Hebrew" is derived from the Akkadian word abru, meaning priest. Variants spellings include 'Apiru, Ha-biru and Ha-piru. The word refers to priests who served at the temples of the ancient Sun cities. The Sun temple was called O-piru, meaning "house of the Sun." The Habiru were already widely dispersed in the 14th-13th centuries B.C. Their dispersion was driven by a marriage and ascendancy pattern in which some sons were sent away to established their own territories.

One of these sons was the Kushite kingdom builder Nimrod. The language of Nimrod's kingdom was likely Sumero-Akkadian. Nimrod's cultural context is more Kushite than Mesopotamian as he was a son of Kush (Genesis 10:8). He is associated with Calah on the Tigris River, known today as the city of Nimrud. Calah (Akkadian 'Kalhu') appears to have been the northernmost point of his territory in Mesopotamia. Nimrod's territory extended along the Tigris between Calah and Ashur. Likewise, Terah's territory extended between Ur and Haran. We first meet Abraham in Ur because he and his father were descendants of Nimrod the Kushite.

Related reading: The Substance of Abraham's Faith; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Sun Cities of the Ancient World

Alice C. Linsley

Hinduism has many layers that developed over time. As a religion, Hinduism reached its zenith in the Axial Age (900-200 BC). Today there are at least 10 Hindu schools of thought. However, at the earliest level, the Vedic texts reveals the influence of the Horite Hebrew who moved into the Indus River Valley. The earliest known site of Horite Hebrew worship, Nekhen on the Nile, dates to 3800 BC.

The earliest civilization of the Indus Valley is that of Harappa (2500–1700 BC). In Dravidian Harappa means "Horus is father." This stone relief is at Agkhor Wat. It shows Horus in the form of his falcon totem perched on the mast of Ra's solar boat. The etiology of Anghor Wat is also telling. Wat means village, town, settlement, or shrine. Anghor is ankh-Hor which means "Long live Horus!"

In Mannika's best-known work, "Angkor Wat: Time, Space and Kingship" she argues that the dimensions, alignment, and bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat speak of Suryavarman II as the divinely appointed king.

The idea of a universal king who is divinely appointed to rule is much older than Angkor Wat. It is found in the oldest layers of Hindu thought. The Sanskrit word cakravartin and the Pali word cakkavattin refer to a righteous king who rules over the entire world. His "messianic" rule is called sar-vabhauma. From Africa to Nepal the words sar and sarki refer to rulers and priests. The Akkadian word "sar" means king. This is the root of the royal title Sar-gon, which means High King or King of Kings. Nimrod's Akkadian name was Šarru-kīnu, which is usually translated “the true king.”

Messianic expectation appears to have originated among the Horite Habiru (Hebrew), a priest caste that served in the temples and shrines of the archaic world. The Habiru were in the service of the "mighty men of old" (Genesis 10), the early kingdom builders like Nimrod. Nimrod was a Kushite kingdom builder (Genesis 10:8) and the language of his territory was Akkadian.

At its earliest levels of development, Hinduism is older than Judaism, but not older than the Hebrew faith. The Rig Veda, the oldest Vedic text dates to between 1900 and 1200 BC, after the time of Abraham the Hebrew. Judaism emerges closer to 700 BC. The term "samhita" refers to the most ancient layer of text in the Vedas. Parts of the Vedic Samhitas constitute the oldest layer of Hindu tradition and include material that resembles Horite Hebrew concepts.

In the Rig Veda, for example, the number seven is sacred, and the Word of God is called Speech and is described as "a loving wife, finely robed." She resembles the Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), personified as a female (Sirach 24:8). In Sirach, Wisdom declares that she “came forth from the mouth of the Most High” as the first-born before all creatures.

In Srimad Bhagavatam 10:16 we find a parallel to Genesis 3:15 where we are told that the serpent's head will be crushed under the feet of the Woman's Son. The Hindu text reads: "The Ancient Man danced on the serpent, who still spewed poison from his eyes and hissed loudly in his anger, and he trampled down with his feet whatever head the serpent raised, subduing him calmly..." (Cited in Andrew Wilson, Ed. World Scriptures, p. 449.)

The same idea is found in Psalm 91:12-13 - "They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down."

However, this expectation was expressed about 1000 years before Psalm 91 in the Pyramid Texts. "Horus has shattered (tbb, crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot (tbw)" (Utterance 388)

Scholars from India acknowledge the Nile-Indus connections. The Indian archaeologist, B. B. Lal contends that the Dravidians came from the Upper Nile (Nubia/Kush). Lal writes:

"At Timos the Indian team dug up several megalithic sites of ancient Nubians which bear an uncanny resemblance to the cemeteries of early Dravidians which are found all over Western India from Kathiawar to Cape Comorin. The intriguing similarity extends from the subterranean structure found near them. Even the earthenware ring-stands used by the Dravidians and Nubians to hold pots were identical."

The Indian historian and anthropologist Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has written: "We have to begin with the Negroid or Negrito people of prehistoric India who were the first human inhabitants. Originally they would appear to have come from Africa through Arabia and the coastlands of Iran and Baluchistan."

The Indian scholar Malati J. Shendge has concluded that the language of the Harappans of the Indus Valley was Akkadian, the language of the territory of Nimrod the Kushite. The Bible scholar, E.A. Speiser, found that names taken to be Indo-European were often labeled "Hurrian" [Horite] only to be identified eventually as Akkadian. The Horites were widely dispersed and spoke the languages of the people among whom they lived. Thus scholars today use terms like Hurro-Akkadian, Hurro-Urartian, and Canaano-Akkadian.

The Indian linguist Ajay Pratap Singh explains,"Comparisons of Akkadian and Sanskrit words yielded at least 400 words in both languages with comparable phonetic and semantic similarities. Thus Sanskrit has, in fact, descended from Akkadian."

These standing stone at Tell Gezer date to the period of the standing stones erected on Salisbury Plain in England around 2500 BC. Photo: Dennis Cole

Alice C. Linsley

There were many religious practices among the Canaanites, but most of the shrines and temples were at elevated sites, called "high places" in the Bible. Most of the high places of the Judean and Edomite hills were under Egyptian control from about 2000 to 1178 BC.

In Hebrew, the high places and fortified mounds are called "ophel" (Hebrew עֹ֫פֶל). The root of the word ophel is OP and pertains to a complex of interrelated ideas: seeing (optic); armed guards (opiltes); walled towns (oppida), and sun shrines (O'piru) served by a caste of priests known in the ancient world as Abru, Ha'piru, Ha'biru and 'Apiru. Abru is the Akkadian word for priest, and the English word Hebrew come from the word Habiru.

Through archaeology and biblical anthropology, we have come to know a great deal about the peoples who lived in Canaan. Their shrines were built at high elevations near water systems and they were later fortified. They were masters of stone work and left behind standing stones of monumental proportions such as those at Tell Gezer.

The term "Canaanite" refers to many different peoples, some of whom were ethnically Nilotic. Genesis 10:15-19, traces the Canaanite peoples to an otherwise unknown descendant of Noah named "Canaan."

"Canaan fathered the Sidon his first-born, then Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later Canaanite clans spread out. The Canaanite frontier stretched from Sidon all the way to Gerar near Gaza and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim near Lehsa."

There were Horite Hebrew priests at many of the Canaanite shrines long before the Jews returned there from Babylonian exile. The Deuteronomist is a post-exilic source with an agenda. The Deuteronomist Historian presents the Canaanites as decadent, idolatrous, and deserving of being displaced from the land, even exterminated. Doubtless, there were practices surrounding fertility that were contrary to the purity code of the Horite Hebrew. These made it easy to cast all Canaanites as decadent.

The Deuteronomist mentions the destruction of Jericho, a pre-pottery Neolithic (PPN) settlement (10,500 to 9,500 BC) whose prestige as a fortified shrine city surpassed that of Jerusalem. There is evidence of competition here.

The Deuteronomist's main concerns were to establish Jerusalem as the only place of worship for Jews as a way of melding the people into a nation. The Deuteronomist encourages the destruction of all high places except Jerusalem. The targets to be destroyed were the bamot. Bamot is the plural form of the word bamah, meaning high or exalted. The word appears in names like Oholibamah and Obamah.

The Deuteronomist revises the history of Abraham's Horite Hebrew people to present a narrative about Moses and the Law that serves to strengthen Jewish identity.The focus is shifted from the archaic Hebrew rulers and their hope for a Righteous Ruler conceived by divine overshadowing and destined to rise from the grave to centralized worship at the Jerusalem temple. This source is also responsible for reshaping the Passover and Tabernacles into national observances. He promotes the power of the Jerusalem elite, and Israel’s possession of the land. This is the beginning of political Zionism.

Alice C. Linsley

"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job..." (Job 1:1)

Job was a Horite Hebrew of the clan of Uz. Uz was a grandson of Seir the Horite ruler of Edom (Genesis 36). Edom was where Abraham the Hebrew settled. Jeremiah speaks of Edom as one of the ancient seats of wisdom.

The divine name YHWH was known among the Horite Hebrew of Edom before the time of Moses. According to Jewish tradition, Moses was born around 1393 BC. However, the name YHWH appears in connection to the Seirites of Edom as early as 1500 BC. Lists of place names in the Nubian temples of Soleb and Amara West record six toponyms associated with the Horites of Edom, “the land of Shasu.” A monument of Ramesses II claims that he “has plundered the Shasu-land, captured the mountain of Seir; a 19th Dynasty letter mentions “the Shasu-tribes of Edom,” and Ramesses III declares that he has “destroyed the Seirites among the tribes of the Shasu.”

The description of Job fits that of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priests. Though accused of being a sinner by his friends, Job was a righteous man who "feared God and shunned evil" (Job 1:1). He rose early to offer prayers and burnt offerings for his children, one by one. He comes to be afflicted by a "ha-satan," the Accuser. Satan's power is limited as he is a creation. He must ask God's permission to afflict God's servant and God puts limits on what Satan may do to Job. The Hebrew did not regard God and Satan as equals. The faith of Abraham was not dualistic.

The trial of Job in which Satan acts as the accuser parallels Zechariah 3:2-6 where Satan accuses the High Priest Joshua (Yeshua/Jesus). In that trial God acquits Joshua and commands that he be clothed in pure garments and crowned with two crowns (ataroth). This points to Jesus who, as the Son of God, would wear a double crown according to Horite Hebrew expectation. The double crown represents how Messiah unites two peoples: the faithful of Israel (Old Covenant) and the faithful of the Church (New Covenant).

Elihu is the last of Job's kin to speak. In Strong's Concordance Elihu is said to mean "He is my God". However, it is more likely that the name relates to God's Word since El refers to God and hu was a Horite word for the divine Word that overcomes chaos. Hu refers to the authoritative word in ancient Egyptian belief and is mentioned in the Old Kingdom Pyramid texts (PT 251, PT 697). There is a close resemblance to the Logos of John's Prologue in that Hu is depicted as the falcon of the Son of God, or the ram, the totem of the Son that overcomes death. (A ram was provided for sacrifice on Mt. Moriah).

Elihu is of the clan of Buz. Buz, Huz and Uz were a three-clan Hebrew confederation. I Chronicles 5:14 tells us that the son of Buz was Jahdo (Hebrew Yahdo), and Jahdo's son was Yeshishai, the Aramaic form of Yeshua/Jesus. With the names Yahdo and Yeshishai we see the initial Canaanite Y that indicates a divinely appointed ruler.

Assuming that Elihu is an historical person, he likely was the brother-in-law of Tamar's son Hezron. (See dark triangle below.) Tamar was the daughter of a shrine priest. This suggests that Elihu lived with his father Barachel in the territory of Buz, but belonged to the household of Elihu, his maternal grandfather, also a priest. Elihu's mother would have been the daughter of Elihu the Elder. In other words, we have further evidence of intermarriage between two Horite Hebrew lines: the ruler-priest lines of Judah and Elihu the Elder.

Evidence of endogamy among the Hebrew Lines of Judah and Elihu (2019)

Judah Elihu the Elder

∆ = O Tamar ∆

Hezron ∆ = O Elihuthe Younger’s sister O Elihu’s mother

▲Elihu the Younger

Both Elihu the Elder and Elihu the Younger were of the ruler-priest caste and ancestors of King David. Elihu the Younger takes us beyond the wisdom of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. He moves us from the retributive justice espoused by Job's three friends to the reality that "God is greater than any human being. Why then quarrel with Him for not replying to you word for word? God speaks first one way and then in another, although we do not realize it." (Job 33:12-14 NJB)

Alice C. Linsley

Joel is a book with some significant anthropological details about the religious life of the kingdom of Judah after the time of Solomon's son Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the first king of Judah. To the north of Judah was the kingdom of Israel. The first king of Israel was Jeroboam.

Both kingdoms strayed from God's calling to be a people devoted to Him and to be a light to the nations. God sent prophets to both kingdoms to call them to repentance. Both kingdoms were to remember God's power to save from sin and to restore fellowship with Him.

In the northern kingdom of Israel there were two centers of worship, one at Bethel and the other at Dan. These were shrines at high elevations. The central image at these shrines was the golden calf, the same image that was fabricated by the Horite Hebrew priest Aaron. It represents a bull calf that is to be sacrificed to make atonement for the sins of the people.

The sacrificial bull calf was shown overshadowed by the sun, a sign of divine appointment for the Horite Hebrew. This is a Messianic image. Aaron is not criticized for making this image. However, the people are criticized for worshiping the image. Here a distinction must be made between the symbolism of the golden bull calf and the actions of the people. To express this for people today, we might speak of the distinction between worshiping the cross instead of the Messiah who was sacrificed on the cross.

In the southern kingdom of Judah, the only center of worship was at the Temple in Jerusalem. The fate of Judah and the Temple is described as the destruction that comes after swarms of locusts. This is an image of waves of invading warriors that leave nothing behind them.

The drama of agricultural devastation is central to the theme. Seeds shrivel under clods of dry earth. The fig, pomegranate, palm, and apple trees are barren and withered. Here is an image of faithless Judah (probably around 350 BC). The theme of Joel is the need for repentance in order for the land, the people, and Jerusalem to be restored.

The priests of the Temple weep because there is no wine or grain to offer before the LORD, and there is no oil for anointing. Gladness dries up (Joel 1:12 and 1:16). This constitutes a call to repentance, a time of mourning and fasting. The prophet is warning the people of Judah to repent.

The people are being warned by the sounding of the shofar (shown above) from the ramparts of Zion. There is time to heed the prophet's warning. As bad as circumstances are, Joel declares that things will get worse for Judah and all the nations because the "day of the LORD" brings darkness and gloom, earth quakes, eclipses, and a blood moon. The stars cease to shine. The apocalyptic imagery so popular during that period is used to emphasize the cosmic impact of human faithlessness. "Yet even now" says the LORD - "Turn back to Me with all your hearts...turn back to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in kindness...: (Joel 2:13). The LORD promises restoration, as with Job and Naomi (Joel 2:25 and 3:1).

The curved ram's horn represents the warrior defending his stronghold. The ram's horn, called shofar, was blown at the high places to sound the alarm and to call the warriors to arms. The ram is often spoken of in terms of war, perhaps one reason the great warrior Alexander found it a compelling image. His image appeared on coins with him wearing the ram's horns (shown below). Consider also the conflict that arises between the ram and the he-goat in Daniel 8.

Little personal information is provided about the writer. His name in Hebrew is Yo' El. Some sources says this means "Yahu is God." Yahu was a common name for the High God in Judah. Numerous official seals (bullae) have been found in Jerusalem excavations with the divine name Yahu. Royal officials attached the name to their names. Examples include Hilqi-Yahu, Shebna-Yahu, and Palti-Yahu.

Palti-Yahu was an official in time of King Zedekiah of Judah (Ezekiel 11:1,13). A seal with the name Shebna-Yahu appeared on the lintel of a tomb at Siloam in Jerusalem. Shebna-yahu may have been the High Priest Shebna during the time of King Hezekiah. Another seal from the 7th century B.C. names Hanan, son of the priest Hilqi-Yahu, the priest. Hilqiyahu is better known as Hilkiah. Hilkiah was the High Priest during the reign of Josiah.

In the ancient world, royal officials commonly affixed the names of God to their names or titles. A Horite Hebrew priest served as a vizier to Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten. The ruler-priest's name was Abdiel, meaning "servant of El." His Egyptian title was ‘Apir-El, which means priest of El.

It is also possible that Yo' El means "El reigns over all" or "El appoints." El is another name for God among the ancient Hebrew. This aligns with what we are told about Yo' El's father. In verse 1, we read that Joel is the son of Petu'El. Petuel or Pethuel is said to be an Aramaic name, but it resembles the ancient Egyptian word PT which means sky or heaven. In ancient Egyptian nb pt means "lord of heaven." So Petu'El could refer to the God of heaven. Joel may be claiming to be a deified "son" of God. For the original readers this certainly would have lent great authority to Joel's message.

Alice C. Linsley

Amram fathered at least three sons and a daughter by two wives. This two-wife custom is typical of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priests. We find the custom with Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4), Terah, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Amram, Moses, and Samuel's father Elkanah.

Abraham had two wives: Sarah and Keturah. Esau the Elder had two wives: Judith (Adah?) and Basemath. Esau the Younger had two wives: Oholibamah and Mahalath. Amram had two wives: Jochebed and Ishar. Moses had two wives: the "Kushite" bride (his half-sister) and the Midianite bride, Zipporah (his patrilineal cousin). Elkanah had two wives: Penninah and Hannah.

The evidence of kinship analysis indicates that Jochebed was Amram's half-sister, not "his father's sister" as claimed by the Deuteronomist Historian (Exodus 6:18, 6:20, Numbers 3:19), a much later source of information. In 1 Samuel 10:14 and Leviticus 10:4 דוד dod signifies an uncle. It can also signify an uncle's son: compare Jeremiah 32:8 with Exodus 6:12, where the Vulgate renders דדי dodi as patruelis mei, my paternal cousin. In Amos 6:10, for דודו dodo, the Targum has קריביה karibiah, meaning a near relation. The evidence supports the view that Jochebed was Amram's patrilineal cousin, and not his aunt.

It appears that Jochebed was the mother of Aaron, Miriam, and Moses, and that Aaron was the oldest of the three. Jochebed and Amram had the same father (Kohath) but different mothers. This is true also for Abraham and Sarah. Their father was Terah, but they had different mothers.

Amram's second wife was Ishar, the daughter of Korah the Elder. Her first born son was named Korah, after her father, following the Horite Hebrew practice of the cousin bride naming her first born son after her father. Korah the Younger belonged to the household of Korah the Elder, not to the household of his biological father. This is typical of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew.

It appears that all these children were born in Egypt. They were Horite Hebrew, a caste of priests dedicated to God Father and God's son called Horus. Some of the Horite Hebrew rulers are listed in Genesis 36. They are associated with the high places in Edom. Horite high places were found in many regions of the ancient world. In the Pyramid Texts (2613-2181 BC) these elevated shrines and temples are called "Horite mounds."

Amram's name means "the people are exalted." This refers to the high status of the Horite Hebrew in the ancient world. They were known for their strict devotion to the High God and his son and for their purity and sobriety. Herodotus observed II:37:

"They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard to this they have customs as follows: they drink from cups of bronze and rinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they wear garments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a special point of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake of cleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely. The priests shave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice or any other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister to the gods; and the priests wear garments of linen only and sandals of papyrus, and any other garment they may not take nor other sandals; these wash themselves in cold water twice in the day and twice again in the night; and other religious services they perform (one may almost say) of infinite number."

Likewise, Plutarch noted that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis [biblical On] never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

Amram's father was Kohath. He also was a priest. One of Amram's sons has the priestly name of Korah. "Korah" refers to a priest who shaves his body as part of a cleansing ritual in preparation for his time of service in the temple or shrine. Korah, a son of Ishar, is mentioned in Numbers 16:1.

Jews pose Aaron as the founder of the Jewish priesthood, but the roots of the Hebrew priesthood are found much earlier. They are found in ancient Egypt and in Edom. In fact, Aaron was buried in Edom, one of the territories ruled by the Horite Hebrew.

Aaron's Tomb on the summit of Mount Harun in ancient Edom.

(Photo credit: Ferrell Jenkins)

Fellow 9-11 conspirators Ziad Jarrah and Mohamed Atta laughing a year before the 2001 attack.

Who are the Houris mentioned in the Quran? Many Muslims believe they are buxom maidens to be enjoyed by martyrs in the afterlife. In a note to his fellow hijackers, September 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta reminded them of their impending "marriage in Paradise" to the 72 virgins mentioned in the Quran. Islamic extremists refer to suicide bombing as a "wedding to the black-eyed in eternal Paradise."

The German scholar Christoph Luxenberg says the "houris" with "swelling breasts" refers instead to "white raisins" and "juicy fruits" and are symbolic of the restoration of the lushness of Paradise. Luxenberg's research was featured in a Newsweek article titled "Challenging the Quran" on 28 July 2003.

Dr. Maher Hathout argues that Luxenberg is wrong about the Houris being raisins and fruits. Hathout explains, "It is his [Luxenberg's] prerogative but this does not provide anything supernatural to look forward to the life of eternity. It seems that what he was referring to as raisins is 'kawaib.' Dr. Hathout argues that the Arabic meaning of "beings with swollen breasts" refers to "beings of distinction."

Dr. Hathout is correct. The beings of distinction are mentioned in the Bible. They are designated by the bi-consonantal root HR in the Arabic word Houris. There are no written vowels in Arabic and Hebrew. Before Islam, this ancient root HR referred to Horite/Horus/Hur. The root HR corresponds to the words Horite (English) and Horim (Hebrew). It appears that Jews and Muslims are drawing on some shared older tradition. The Horite priesthood is older than both Judaism and Islam by thousands of years.

The Horite rulers are described as "mighty men" and heroes. They are portrayed as deified rulers, men of wisdom, and members of the heavenly council.

In Revelation 15:2 we read that seven angelic beings (Horim?) come out of the temple to pour out the wrath of God upon the earth from seven bowls. Some Bible scholars have noted that these servants are vested as priests.

Revelation 20 speaks of 24 rulers who sit on thrones and who will judge the world for 1000 years. These are "them that were beheaded for their witness of Jesus, and for the word of God." Revelation 20:6 describes them as "priests of God and of Christ."

Horite rulers and judges are called "elohiym" because they reflected the divine majesty and power. Numerous passages in Exodus use elohiym in this sense:

Exodus 4:16 -“Moreover, he [Aaron] shall speak for you [Moses] to the people; and it shall come about that he shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be as gods [elohiym] to him.”

Exodus 7:1 - Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you as gods [elohiym] to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.”

Exodus 21: 6 - “Then his master shall bring him to the gods [elohiym] (the rulers who render judgement?) then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.”

Exodus 22:8,9 -“If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house shall appear before the judges [elohiym], to determine whether he laid his hands on his neighbor’s property. For every breach of trust, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any lost thing about which one says, ‘This is it,’ the case of both parties shall come before the judges [elohiym]; he whom the judges [elohiym] condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.”

Virgin Girls and Boys

It appears that given a Muslim's sexual preference, both virgin girls and boys are motivation to be martyred. In popular Islam, both are believed to be at the service of martyrs in Paradise. The big breasted, beautiful eyed, golden hair and fair skin women have a counterpart in the tender aged (Khudam) servant boys with skin like pearls.

Here are the references in the Quran to the eternal servant boys:

There will circulate among them [servant] boys [especially] for them, as if they were pearls well-protected. (52:24)

There will circulate among them young boys made eternal. (56:17)

There will circulate among them young boys made eternal. When you see them, you would think them [as beautiful as] scattered pearls. (76:19)

Servant boys from Horite Hebrew families served the Horite ruler-priests. Samuel was a young boy who served the High Priest Eli. It was not unusual for children to be dedicated to the temple where they lived as servants.

This icon shows the Virgin Mary weaving purple thread.

One theory about Mary is that she was a dedicated temple virgin whose duties included drawing water and weaving. The connection between the Virgin Mary and weaving is found in non-canonical books. The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (chapter 9) describes how Mary and other virgins were spinning thread in the Temple compound. Carrying a pitcher, Mary went out to a fountain where the angel said to her, "Blessed art thou, Mary; for in thy womb thou hast prepared an habitation for the Lord." The next day the angel appeared to her again while she is spinning.

Alice C. Linsley

The Apostle Paul wrote a great deal about the Messianic Faith and how it is expressed in the promises made to Abraham the Hebrew. Paul stresses that those who follow Jesus Messiah have been made partakers of those ancient promises (Galatians 3:7-9). He exposes as a false teaching the Judaizers' insistence that the Messianic Faith requires adherence to the laws of Judaism.

Many misconceptions surround the person of Abraham. He is not the founder of Judaism. He was not a Jew. He is identified as "Hebrew" in the Bible and the Hebrew were a caste of priests and rulers with deep roots in antiquity. The English word Hebrew and its variants 'Apriu, Abru, Hapiru, Habiru, appear in texts that date to before Abraham's time. Abraham's faith was received from his Hebrew ancestors. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship at Nekhen dates to 4000 BC, about 2000 years before Abraham.

Many people think that Christianity emerged out of Judaism, but the core belief of the Messianic Faith is that the son of God would take on flesh, be sacrificed, and rise again. This belief was already evident among Abraham’s Horite Hebrew people before 3000 BC. They believed in God Father (Ra or Ani) and God Son (Horus or Enki). Jews reject the very idea that God has a son. Yet the Scriptures say that it is impossible to be saved unless one believes that Jesus is the son of God (Genesis 3:15; Proverbs 30:4, Hosea 11:1; Luke 1:35; John 3:14-17; John 6:40; John 6:69-70; John 20:31; 1 John 5:13). This is why the Apostle Paul speaks of believers being grafted into Abraham, not Judaism. Judaism is not the faith of Abraham the Hebrew.

In Galatians 3, he identifies Abraham’s Seed as Jesus Messiah. In verse 29, Paul explains, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, and heirs according to the promise” made to Abraham.

Abraham was not a Jew. He is called “Hebrew” is the Bible, and his territory extended between Hebron and Beersheba. In Abraham's time, this region was ruled by the Horite Hebrew and was called Edom. The Greeks called it Idumea, meaning “land of red people.” You will recall that Esau of Edom is described as red, and David, who had Edomite blood, also is described as ruddy or red.

Some of the Horite Hebrew rulers of Edom are listed in Genesis 36 (shown on the diagram above). The great antiquity of the Horite Hebrew of Edom is verified in Genesis 36:31, “These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before any king ruled over the Israelites.”

The Messianic tradition upon which the Church stands is revealed in the Bible. It is the tradition of the Horite Hebrew who believed in God Father and God Son. The Horite Hebrew are called “Horim” by Jews, which means parents or ancestors. Jesus lived in a Jewish context which did not recognize him as the fulfillment of the expectations of the Horim. This is because by Jesus’ time, Judaism was only tangentially related to the faith of Abraham.

Certainly, early Christian worship was patterned on the synagogue, with scripture readings, prayers, homilies, and days of feasting and fasting. The east-facing altar is patterned on the Horite Hebrew temple, as are church furnishings such as the tabernacle and the lamp. However, Christianity alone affirms that Messiah is the Son of God. Judaism and Islam reject the very idea that God has a son.

Judaism is the elaboration of rabbinic thought over 3000 years, and though it claims Abraham as its founder, Abraham was not a Jew. Prominent Jews readily admit this.

Rabbi Stephen F. Wise, former Chief Rabbi of the United States, wrote: "The return from Babylon and the introduction of the Babylonian Talmud mark the end of Hebrewism and the beginning of Judaism. This break came around 700 BC, at least 1300 years after Abraham.

For Jews, the greatest authority is the Talmud. Consider SUNY professor, Robert Goldberg’s explanation: “The traditional Jew studies Talmud because it communicates ultimate truth—truth about God, truth about the world, and most important, truth about how God wants the holy community of Israel to live.”

The Rabbis are trained in argumentation and the Talmud is a record of their disputations. One drawback is the tendency of the rabbis to debate minutiae and esoteric matters. Over time the Messianic Faith of Abraham - the main thing - became peripheral. The Talmud came to be of greater authority than the Hebrew Scriptures.

The Talmud encourages this. Consider this Talmudic exhortation: “My son, be more careful in the observance of the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah." (Talmud Erubin 21b), and this: "My son, give heed to the words of the scribes rather than to the words of the law." This also, "He who transgresses the words of the Scribes sins more gravely than the transgressors of the words of the Law." (Sanhedrin X, 3 f.88b)

In a 2007 NOVA interview Rabbi Shaye Cohen (Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard) admitted that Abraham was not a Jew, and he explains that, nevertheless, the narrative of Judaism presents him as the first Jew as a place to start. In other words, the narrative of Judaism ignores the biblical data about Abraham’s ancestors in Genesis 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11. It is in those early chapters that we find the anthropologically significant data about the origin of the Messianic Faith among Abraham’s ancestors.

This mummy known as "Ginger” died around 3400 BC or earlier. His mummified body was found in a cemetery at Gebelein, Egypt. Ginger was a young man who apparently died from a stab wound. His mummified remains were found in a crouched position in a shallow pit. Direct contact with the hot, dry sand naturally mummified his body.

Ginger or Gebelein Man

According to Dr. Janet Davey, a forensic Egyptologist from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Australia, some ancient Egyptians were naturally blond or red haired.

Some Egyptologists believed that the hair color of the mummies became lighter due to the process of mummification which involve natron. Natron has bleaching properties. However, Dr. Davey undertook a series of experiments with “16 hair samples from Egyptian people in the salty ash for 40 days and no change in hair color was observed.

Yuya mummy with blond hair.

Yuya was a powerful Egyptian courtier during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (c.1390 BC). He was married to Tjuyu, an Egyptian noblewoman associated with the royal family, who held high offices in the governmental and religious hierarchies. Their daughter, Tiye, became the wife of Amenhotep III.

At Nekhen on the Nile, archaeologists have found a redheaded man in Burial no. 79. The beard of the man had been trimmed with a sharp blade. The Nekhen News (p. 7) reports, "The vast majority of hair samples discovered at Nekhen were cynotrichous (Caucasian) in type as opposed to heliotrichous (Negroid)." Nekhen was founded as a Horite shrine city before 4000 BC.

Red haired mummies have also been found in pyramids in the Tarim Valley in southwest China. The oldest Tarim Mummies found in China date from 1900 B.C. The so-called "Ur-David" mummy (shown below) was tall and had red hair. This mummy, also called Cherchen Man or Chärchän Man, dates to about 1000 B.C.

Related reading: Tarim Mummies; Ginger's Autopsy

2013 photo of an excavation of an ancient battlefield in northern Germany. The Battle of Tollense fits into a period of increased warfare and upheaval. (Photo: C. Harte-Reiter)

1400-1200 BC was a period of significant social change characterized by political upheaval and an increase in warfare and in the technologies of war. The use of bronze was accompanied by standing armies and new tools for combat. War chariots were used from Egypt to China.

The turmoil extended to northern Germany were archaeologists have identified a major Bronze Age battle ground at Tollense. After the Tollense battle the scattered farmsteads of northern Europe were replaced by fortified settlements, suggesting the need for greater defense.

The unrest is seen in the Assyrian threat to many surrounding territories. In the Aegean, the cultural influence of Crete was overshadowed by the wealthy warrior-kings in Greece. The Mycenaean palace states were in decline.

The Hittite dominance in Anatolia was greatly diminished with the fall of their capital at Hattusa. The kingdom of Ugarit fell in c. 1200 BC. The decline of the Hittite and Ugarit kingdoms were typical of the shifting social and political ground during the Bronze Age Collapse.

The number of Israelite settlements increased in the hills north of Jerusalem, and to the south of Jerusalem the rulers of Ammon, Moab and Edom sought to strengthen their borders and formed alliances with Egypt.

The Hurrian/Horites of Anatolia and Mesopotamia came under the Middle Assyrian Empire (1366–1020 BC) which came to control much of the Near East and Asia Minor. The Horites (Hebrew: Horim, חרים) are mentioned in Genesis 14:6, Genesis 36, and Deuteronomy 2:12). One of their older strongholds was at Mount Seir in Edom. This was in Abraham's territory, and Moses was a descendant of Seir the Horite. Aaron was buried in Edom.

Edom was called Idumea by the Greeks, meaning "land of red people." In Genesis 25, Esau of Edom is described as red and hairy. David is also described as red or ruddy.

King David came to power in Judah c.1000 BC. He gained his throne through daring battles, alliances, and the endorsement of the great prophet Samuel who was sent to anoint David as Saul's replacement. The reigns of David and Solomon produced Israel's Golden Age. It shines ever more brightly against the backdrop of the Bronze Age Collapse.

View from Mount Nebo

Alice C. Linsley

The name YHWH is found on the Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone) inscribed around 860 B.C. in the name of Mesha, the King of Moab. In a military action, Mesha claims to have taken Nebo and carried off the "vessels of YHWH." This indicates that there was a temple or shrine on Mount Nebo.

Nebo is an elevated ridge in the Abarim range in modern Jordan. This land was once part of ancient Edom. Nebo was a Hebrew high place long before the time of Moses. Evidence of human occupation is found in the Bronze Age cave burials in the Nebo hills, and the 18,000-year axes and arrowheads found in the area.

Nebo is also spelled Nevo, and there appears to be a connection to Abraham and Sarah. When the patriarch Terah died, Abraham's older brother Nahor ruled over Terah's holdings in Mesopotamia. Abraham became a sent-away son. Sent-away sons often went to live with maternal uncles, as did Jacob. This is called avunculocal residence. It appears that Abraham's calling to leave his home involved a long-standing tradition.

According to the Talmud, Sarah was the daughter of a ruler named Kar-nevo. Yet, according to Genesis 20:12, Abraham and Sarah had the same father, but different mothers. Sarah’s father was Terah, not Karnevo. However, s often happens in the Bible rulers of places and place names are interchanged and become synonymous. Kar-nevo/nebo is a place name. Kar refers to an elevated site where burnt offerings were made, and Kar-Nevo refers to Mount Nebo. It appears that Abraham and Sarah had an uncle there. Likely, he was a Horite Hebrew priest. Clearly, the name Yahweh was known at that shrine, as it was known among older shrines along the Nile.

This also explains why Moses, a descendant of Seir the Horite Hebrew, spent the last days of his life. Mount Nebo was a Horite Hebrew sacred place, as was Edom, where Aaron was buried.

Related reading: The Social Structure of the Biblical Hebrew; Leaving Haran; Sent-Away Sons; The Substance of Abraham's Faith; Abraham's Maternal Line; Karampetsos, Karambet, Karoutes

Alice C. Linsley

A reader has asked for a list detailing the "patriarchs" and their wives in a simple format like this.

1. husband
a. wife 1
b. wife 2

The term "patriarch" does not appear in the Bible. The men with two wives were rulers and chiefs over their clans. These rulers were related as it was their practice to marry within and between the Hebrew clans (endogamy).

The pattern of two wives is found throughout the Bible among the Hebrew people. However, we are not always provided with the data we need to identify which wife is the first and which is the second. Some wives are not named. Moses' Kushite wife is an example, as are King Joash's two wives, chosen for him by the priest Jehoiada.

In the case of sent-away sons there may be disruption of the usual pattern of marrying a half-sister in the man's youth and marrying a patrilineal cousin in later life. Jacob is an example. Leah is the first wife and her sister Rachel is the second wife. According to the biblical data, both women were Jacob's cousins.

In some cases, we are not told the names of the bride's father, which makes it difficult to identify her clan and whether she is the first or second wife. The second wife can be identified by "the cousin bride's naming prerogative." She is the cousin bride if her first born son is named after her father. The cousin bride is the second wife. The chief's first wife is usually a half sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. They had the same father but different mothers.

Examples of the cousin bride include Lamech's daughter Naamah, Abraham's wife Keturah, and Amram's wife Ishar. In this diagram we see that Lamech's daughter Naamah (mentioned in Genesis 4) married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah (Genesis 5) and named their first born son Lamech after her father. This is why it is necessary to speak of "Lamech the Elder" and "Lamech the Younger."

Here is a list, as requested. When no data is available about the marriage order, I assume that the order of the women's names in the Bible represents their status. The first wife is the principal wife as her first born son is her husband's proper heir. The first born son of the cousin wife belongs to the household of his maternal grandfather after whom he is named.

Lamech (Genesis 4)

1. Adah

2. Zillah

Terah (Genesis 11)

1. unnamed sister wife was a daughter of Nahor the elder

2. unnamed cousin wife was a daughter of Haran the elder. Her brother Haran died in Ur.

Abraham

1. Sarai/Sarah, half-sister wife (Genesis 12, Genesis 20:12)

2. Keturah, cousin wife of the royal house of Sheba (cf. Genesis 10:7)

Jacob

1. Leah, posed as a cousin wife, but she may have been a half-sister

2. Rachel, cousin wife

Amram, father of Moses

1. Jochebed

2. Ishar

Moses

1. unnamed "Kushite" or Nilotic wife

2. Zipporah

Elkanah, priest father of Samuel

Two wives, Penninah and Hannah. No data as to which was the first.

Ashur

Two wives (1 Chronicles 4:5)

1. Helah is probably the half-sister wife

2. Naarah is probably the patrilineal cousin wife.

Joash

Two wives chosen for him by the High Priest Jehoiada. Joash's mother was Zibiah of Beersheba. Here we again see a connection between the royal house of David and the royal house of Sheba.

Alice C. Linsley

The Horite mounds and the Sethite mounds were sacred Hebrew shrines. Though separate, they shared common religious practices and beliefs.

It is clear in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2000 BC) that the Horites and the Sethites maintained separate settlements. Utterance 308 addresses them as separate entities: "Hail to you, Horus in the Horite Mounds! Hail to you, Horus in the Sethite Mounds!"

PT Utterance 470 contrasts the Horite mounds with the mounds of Seth, designating the Horite Mounds "the High Mounds."

The two groups appear to be separate yet related, suggesting a moiety, such as that of the Red and Black Nubians. The term "moiety" refers to two social or ritual groups into which a people is divided. The distinction between the two groups is evident in PT Utterance 424: "O King, a boon which the King grants, that you occupy the Mounds of Horus, that you travel about the Mounds of Seth..." Here we find a suggestion that the Horite Hebrew were named for their devotion to Horus.

PT Utterance 424 continues, "that you [King] sit on your iron throne and judge their affairs at the head of the Great Ennead which is in On." Though separate, the Horites and the Sethites are judged by a common king.

That both groups serve the same king is evident from PT Utterance 213: "O King, you have not departed dead, you have departed alive...The Mounds of Horus serve you, the Mounds of Seth serve you."

The extent of the King's reign is considerable. In his resurrection body he is to "traverse the Mound of Horus of the Southerners" and "traverse the Mound of Horus of the Northerners." (PT Utterances 536 and 553) The risen king restores his settlements and cities, and opens doors to the Westerners, Easterners, Northerners and Southerners (Pt Utterance 587). He is to "betake himself to the Mansion of Horus which is in the firmament" (PT Utterance 539).

The risen king unites the peoples, restores the former state of blessedness, and unites heaven and earth. When seen from this perspective, the Horite Hebrew religion appears to be the foundation of the Messianic hope that is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

Alice C. Linsley

Before the emergence of Buddhism, temples in Cambodia were Hindu shrines dedicated to different deities. Most of the temples had an east orientation, but one at Angkor Wat had a west orientation, suggesting a connection to Horus on the Horizon. The term "Wat" means village, town, settlement, or shrine. Very likely "Anghor" is a variant of "ankh-Hor" which means "Long live Horus!"

Hinduism has many layers that developed over time. As a religion, Hinduism reached its zenith in the Axial Age (900-200 BC). The earliest civilization of the Indus Valley is that of Harappa (2500–1700 BC). In Dravidian, Harappa means "Horus is father." Among many ancient populations, Horus was the patron of kings.

The stone relief (shown above) is at Agkhor Wat. It shows Horus in the form of his falcon totem perched on the mast of Ra's solar boat.

Parts of the Vedic Samhitas constitute the oldest layer of Hindu tradition and include material that resembles Horite Hebrew concepts. The oldest site of Horite Hebrew worship is at Nekhen on the Nile and dates to around 3800 BC.

Evidently, the Horites spread their religious from ancient Kush to Mesopotamia and beyond. The old fire altars in Hinduism were falcon shaped. The falcon was the totem of Horus. This is why the Shulba Sutras state that "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon."

Statue found outside the walls of Angkor Thom in Cambodia.

(Photo taken around 1958.)

Describing his 1912 visit to Bayon Temple, the French novelist Pierre Loti wrote:

“I looked up at all those towers, rising above me, overgrown in the greenery and suddenly shivered with fear as I saw a giant frozen smile looming down at me … and then another smile, over there in another tower … and then three, and then five, and then ten.”

Khmer Empire was an absolute monarchy that thrived from the 9th to the 15th century. Chou Ta-Kwan was a Chinese envoy to Angkor in the thirteenth century AD. He wrote about the daily life of the Khmer.

"When the king comes out, the troops are at the head of the procession. Their bodies and feet are bare. They hold a lance in their right hands and shields in the left. Then come the standards, the flags and the music. The king and the ministers are all mounted on elephants. In front of them many red parasols can be seen even from far off. Next come the wives and concubines of the king riding in palanquins, carts or on horses and elephants. They carry more than one hundred parasols heavily decorated with gold..." (Horizon: A Magazine of the Arts, January 1959, p. 71)

The Khmer civilization produced the famous Temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and the Bayon Temple. The Bayon Temple served as the temple of Jayavarman’s new capital, Angkor Thom, and it was originally a Mahayana shrine. Jayavarman VII (shown right) ruled the Khmer from 1181–1218.

Ta Prohm is the modern name of the temple at Angkor, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. Construction on Ta Prohm began in 1186 AD. A rare inscription at Ta Prohm provides statistics on the temple's workers. The inscription reports around 80,000 workers, including 2700 officials and 615 dancers. It speaks of 66,000 farmers who provided 3,000 tons of rice annually to support the temple workers, priests, and dancers. Imagine this also happening at Anghor Thom and the Bayon Temple. The burden would have been enormous and this explains why the more egalitarian approach of Buddhism took hold, ultimately supplanting Hinduism in that region.

The deification of the Asian rulers finds precedent among the ancient Nilotes, especially the Egyptians. The ruler-priests of the Khmer look like the priests of the Nile. Compare this image of an Egyptian "Harwa" to the image of Jayavarman VII. In Eleanor Mannika's work, "Angkor Wat: Time, Space and Kingship" she argues that the dimensions, alignment, and bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat speak of Suryavarman II as the divinely appointed king.

Related reading: Elements of the Messianic Faith in Early Hinduism; African Religion Predates Hinduism

Alice C. Linsley

Modern genetics has forced scientists to rethink the popular notion of racial types. The idea of races based on stereotypical physical features misrepresents the great genetic diversity of humans. It tends to reinforce racism when, in reality, all humans have common ancestry in Africa. Anyone who has received a report on their DNA ancestry will have noted that they have a genetic heritage from MtDNA Macro-haplogroup L, at the root of the human phylogenetic tree. This map shows the point of origin of that genetic heritage.

Anthropologists and geneticists recognize that the greatest genetic diversity is and always has been found in African populations. Populations farther from Africa tend to have the least genetic diversity.

Anthropological evidence suggests that the range of skin and eye color existed from the beginning in Africa. Even today it is not uncommon for babies born from the same parents to show different features associated with "racial" types. Here are images of unusual, but not rare, features associated with "African" stereotypes.

San (Bushmen) of Botswana

Petrie's study of images on ancient Egyptian monuments suggested that the Egyptians and other Nilotes were genetically mixed. This confirmed what had been discovered by the 1828 Franco-Italian expedition to Egypt led by Jean-Francois Champollion and Ippolito Rosellini.

Above is a detail from one of Rosellini's drawings showing both black and red Nubian warriors who were taken captive by the Egyptians under Rameses II (1279-1213 BC).

The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship was at Nekhen on the Nile (3800 BC). The Nekhen News (p. 7) reports, "The vast majority of hair samples discovered at Nekhen were cynotrichous (Caucasian) in type as opposed to heliotrichous (Negroid)."

One of the more intriguing discoveries at http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2014/05/why-nekhen-is-anthropologically.htmlNekhen was the recovery of an almost complete beard in association with the redheaded man in Burial no. 79. The presence of long wavy natural red hair and a full beard suggests that this individual may be of the same ethnicity as the red haired ruler known as Ur-David (shown right) buried in a pyramid in the Tarim Valley of China.

A tent-shrine or tabernacle was discovered at Timnaʿthat resembled the biblical description of the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness. Stone-lined post-holes were found with acacia wood fragments and numerous copper rings. There were copious fragments of copper wire knots likely used to suspend the tent curtains.

Timna was an industrial-scale metallurgical site in and around the Wadi Arabah in ancient Edom, Abraham's territory. The region was rich in copper and the metal work done there appears to have involved religious ritual. Juan Manuel Tebes points out that the Midianite ceramic wares also appear "consistently in cultic contexts, administrative buildings, and burial offerings."

In the early 2000's, Dr. Thomas E. Levy led an archaeological survey that yielded earlier dates than had been assigned to the Edomite kingdom. The team found scarabs, painted pottery shards, metal arrowheads, hammers, grinding stones, and slag heaps. Dr. Levy stated, "Only a complex society such as a paramount chiefdom or primitive kingdom would have the organizational know-how to produce copper metal on such an industrial scale."

An "impressive amount of Midianite ware" was found around the tent-shrine at Timna. The Midianites were related to Abraham through his son Midian, born of Abraham's cousin wife Keturah (Gen. 25). They should be considered a Horite Hebrew clan of Edom. Moses married his cousin Zipporah, a daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro. Moses' father married a Horite woman of Edom (see diagram above).

At Timna there was a shrine to Hathor, the mother of Horus. (Horus is derived from the Ancient Egyptian HR, meaning "Most High One.") Hathor was the patron of the Horite metal workers at Timna and at other metal workers sites in the region. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

Concerning House 314 at Tel Masos near Beersheba Juan Tebes writes: “Within several of its habitations, rests of metallurgical activities were visible on the ground, possibly connected to a ritual function, as has been suggested by the appearance of ‘human’ figurines very similar to those found at the Hathor temple of Timna."

Tel Masos sits at the gateway to Hebron where Sarah resided. Keturah likely resided at or near Tel Masos or Beersheba. These sites were within Abraham's territory in Edom as shown on the map above. Note the placement of the wives on a north-south axis, a characteristic of the Horite marriage pattern involving two wives.

Horite Hebrew priests were active in metal work, as is evidence in the stories of Aaron and Moses fabricating ritual objects. They were rather widely dispersed in the ancient world. Horite Hebrew priests were found in Aram, Edom, Judah, and Moab. The Midianite potters were among them.

Related reading: The Chiefs of Edom, The Substance of Abraham's Faith, The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; A Land Whose Stones are Iron and From Whose Hill You May Mine Copper.; The Antiquity of the Edomite Rulers

Alice C. Linsley

There is more and more evidence that the territory where ancient Israel, Aram, and Phoenicia met was an ethnic melting pot.

Abel Beth Maacah (shown in red on the map) is in the region. There are references to the city in 2 Samuel 20:14; 1 Kings 15:20, and 2 Kings 15:29.

The wise woman of Abel Beth Maacah saved her town from destruction when she surrendered the head of Sheba to David’s general (2 Sam. 20:17-22). Sheba contested David's claim to the throne. Indeed, the royal House of Sheba was very old and had roots in Africa and Southern Arabia. Sheba may have sought refuge with Afro-Arabian kinsmen living in Abel Beth Maacah.

Tel Abel Beth Maacah is a large archaeological site consisting of a mound with a small upper northern section and a large lower southern section. These sections are connected by a saddle. Excavations at Tel Abel Beth Maacah have been conducted since 2012 under the direction of Robert Mullins (Azusa Pacific University) and Nava Panitz-Cohen (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Ruhama Bonfil was the surveyor.

A Hebrew inscription on a jar unearthed at Abel Beth Macaah may resolve a long-running dispute about the extent of Israelite territory in the 9th-century B.C.E. Written in Hebrew, the inscription reads Ibnayo: “belonging to Benaiyo.” Ibn and ben mean "son" so this should be read as "son of Aiyo." Aiyo is an African name with the variant spelling Ayo.

Also found at Able Beth Maccah was a 13th century ceramic jug with a cache of 12 silver coins. The coins were fused together by corrosion. However, Miriam Lavi used a diluted acid solution to separate the silver pieces. The hoard included earrings and an ingot in the shape of the continent of Africa (shown below).

Alice C. Linsley

Samuel's father was a Horite Hebrew priest with two wives. His name means "God's provision" and the name Elkanah appears in different generations of Horite Hebrew ruler-priests (1 Chron. 6:23-34; 1 Chron. 9:16; 2 Chron. 28:7). In Exodus 6:24 we find that a man named Elkanah is the grandson of Korah, the half-brother of Moses and Aaron. This diagram shows that Korah is a descendant of Seir the Horite ruler of Edom (Gen. 36).

In the narrative of Samuel's birth we read that his father Elkanah was a Zuphite, meaning he was a descendant of Zuph and lived in Ramathaim-zophim, "the land of Zuph." Ramathaim-zophim is described as "hill country" and it is known that the Horites preferred the high country. Ramathaim is simply Ramah elsewhere in the story of Samuel's family.

Hill country of Edom, ruled by the Horites (Gen. 36)

Ramah has a long association with prophets; Samuel being one of the greatest. Deborah, “the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet” who judged from her palm tree between “Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim." (Judges 4:4-6) Ephraim refers to the region around Bethlehem.

The Horite Hebrew were a caste of rulers who served as priests, prophets, scribes, warriors and metal workers. They were ethnically Kushite. Ramah was a son of Kush according to Genesis 10:7.

In the Masoretic Text the name of Samuel's city is hara-matatyim zophim. (See The Anchor Bible Commentary on I Samuel by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., p. 51) This means that Samuel's father was a priest of the line of Matthew (or Mattai/Mattan). Hara-matatyim is the priestly line of Joseph of Arimathea, one of Jesus' relatives, and the member of the Sanhedrin who buried the Lord's body in a tomb he has excavated for himself. Samuel's father and Jesus had common Horite Hebrew ancestors.

David and his father Jesse were of this Horite lineage also. Matthew's Gospel links Bethlehem and Ramah (Matt. 2:13-23); suggesting that Jesse's territory extended from Bethlehem to Ramah. All of this would have been called "Judah" in Jesse's time. If David's city was the Bethlehem in Galilee, Jesse was indeed a great ruler. This is further supported by the Y solar cradle in his name - Yishai. Many of the great Horite rulers are designated by this symbol of divine appointment: Yismael, Yitzak, Yacob/Yisrael, Yetro, Yisbak, Yaqtan, and Yeshua.

Samuel's Horite ancestry, and his kinship to Jesse, is further supported by the distinctive Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern that they shared. Samuel's father was a priest with two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. It was the custom for Horite Hebrew ruler-priests to have two wives. One was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the other was a patrilineal cousin or niece (as was Keturah to Abraham).

The first wife was the sister bride, married at a fairly young age. She was the wife of the man's youth. The second wife was taken close to the time of the heir's coming to the throne. The two wives lived in separate households, usually on a north-south axis.

The firstborn son of the sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. So Isaac ruled over Abraham's territory. The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. Abraham's cousin wife was Keturah. Her firstborn son was Joktan (Yaqtan). Joktan the Younger ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, Joktan the elder, the progenitor of the Joktanite clans of Arabia. This pattern of two wives and the cousin bride's naming prerogative, makes it possible to trace the Horite line of descent from Genesis 4 to Jesus, the Son of God.

Samuel dwelt in Ramah. This suggests that he ascended to the throne of his father. This means that his mother Hannah was Elkanah's half-sister wife, as the rabbis attest. Peninnah was Elkanah's cousin wife. Her first born son ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, not as the high priest but as a vassal to the high priest with a land holding in the territory of his maternal grandfather.

I Sam.1:4 states that when Elkanah offered a sacrifice, it was his custom to give portions to Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. We do not know how many children Peninnah had, but we are told that after Hannah gave birth to Samuel, she had two more sons and two daughters.

If Samuel followed the marriage and ascendancy pattern of his Horim, he married one of Peninnah's daughters at a fairly early age. Nazirites did marry, as is evident from the story of Samson.

Here is a diagram showing Samuel's Horite family.

Ruth at the Threshing Floor

Aaron Was Buried in Edom

Who Were the Sumerians?

Elements of the Messianic Faith in Early Hinduism

Blaming the Evil Canaanites

The Horite Hebrew Wisdom of Elihu

Joel in Anthropological Perspective

Amram's Children

Killing and Dying to "Marry" Virgins

Judaism is Not the Faith of Abraham

Blond and Red Haired Nilotes

The Bronze Age Collapse

Nebo was a Horite Hebrew Shrine

Identifying the Status of the Two Wives

Horite Mounds

Horus, the Patron of Kings

The Fiction of Racial Types

Midianite Potters of Edom

Africans in Abel Beth Maacah

Samuel's Horite Hebrew Family